Area Proving It's Not Minor On Pro Sports

June 01, 1990|By WARNER HESSLER Staff Writer

NORFLK — Dave Rosenfield stood on the sidelines and felt a sense of pride last month when Blake Cullen walked to the mound at Met Park to throw out the first ball and launch another minor league baseball season in Norfolk.

To Rosenfield, general manager of the Tidewater Tides baseball team, Cullen had proved his theory that a minor league sports team with good ownership could make it in the Hampton Roads area.

But until Cullen brought the Hampton Roads Admirals of the Atlantic Coast Hockey League to Norfolk Scope in 1989, Rosenfield was the lone pearl among the bed of area sports oysters.

During the last 21 years, Hampton Roads had seen the coming - and going - of three hockey teams, plus the Norfolk Neptunes of the World Football League and the Virginia Squires of the American Basketball Association.

The Peninsula Pilots of the Carolina League, the only other minor league franchise in the area, had gone through three ownership changes in eight years and at one time couldn't even give tickets away.

Despite the reputation Hampton Roads had gained as a graveyard for sports franchises, Rosenfield remained steadfast in his belief that the area could be a good place to own a minor league team.

"The reputation this area has, that it won't support teams, just isn't right," Rosenfield said.

What Hampton Roads needed, Rosenfield reasoned, was a franchise with solid ownership. It had had too many undercapitalized quick-buck artists come through, stay a few years, and either fold or sell their teams.

What Hampton Roads needed was somebody like Cullen, somebody who had spent his life in professional sports and knew how to manage and promote a successful franchise.

In November, 1988, Rosenfield received a call from Cullen, who was administrator of the National League and had been assistant vice president of the Chicago Cubs for 10 years.

According to Rosenfield, the conversation went something like this:

Cullen - "I'm thinking about buying a minor league hockey team and putting it in Norfolk. What do you think?"

Rosenfield - "I think hockey's got a hell of a chance of making it here. If you decide to come in, I will do all within my power to help make it successful."

Had Rosenfield been less than enthusiastic during that conversation, the Admirals would have been in either Richmond or Huntsville, Ala.

A selfish or short-sighted person might have been tempted to dissuade Cullen from moving into Scope.

Over the last 21 years, Rosenfield had cornered most of the sports dollars spent in the Hampton Roads Area. The Tides made money in 20 of those 21 years, their lone losing season being in 1974 when they had 14 games rained out and were 25 games below .500 in early June. They lost $1,500 that year.

Had Rosenfield decided he didn't want to share the sports dollars, he could have told Cullen to take his franchise elsewhere.

But Cullen knew he would get an honest answer from Rosenfield. The two men had communicated on a regular basis for nearly 20 years, and Cullen had come to respect Rosenfield's judgement.

"When I administered the National League, my job included procuring new umpires for the league," Cullen said. "The American and National leagues compete for umpires.

"I used to call various general managers, and I found Dave one of the best guys to call for opinions on umpires. He was honest, and I respected his judgement.

"I didn't need his blessings to go forward in Norfolk, but if Dave had said I would be making a tragic mistake, I would have gone elsewhere."

But he didn't, and the Admirals produced perhaps the biggest sports story in the history of Hampton Roads by averaging 5,814 fans in 33 home games during the 1989-90 season.

So when Cullen walked to the mound at Met Park last month, Rosenfield felt a sense of pride because his belief that Hampton Roads was a good place to own a sports franchise had been proven correct.

Rosenfield, though, did more than just give Cullen his blessings. He encouraged his season ticket holders and advertisers to get behind the Admirals.

He mailed a separate letter to Tides' season ticket holders that said, in part, "hockey is great for the area, they (the Admirals) are first-rate people, and we urge all of our fans and supporters to get involved".

"I guess that letter was a little unprecedented," Rosenfield said, "but it's my feeling that the more teams you have succeeding in an area, the more other teams will prosper.

"If you can get people out of the house for four months to go to hockey games, they may think it's great to get away from the couch. When the hockey season ends, they've got an eight-month void and they may decide they want to get out of the house and go to a baseball game."

The Admirals, who began last season with 740 season ticket holders and grossed more than a million dollars, are looking for even bigger things during the 1990-91 season.